“Change is the only certain aspect of project management”-Kevin Veld
Over the past 7 years, we have seen common trends in the growth of project management.
The table below is an summary indication of the common trends from 2010 - 2016
With the trends table we could conclude that over the past 7 years:
PMP® Certified Project Managers - with strong business acumen
Managing Large Data through Simplified Dashboards - project intelligence
Cloud Project Management and Apps - desktop project management is dying
PMO Sustainability - add value not paper
Organizational Agility - to move like a fox
Let’s take a look at the 2016 project management trends:
Organizational Agility
Your project management skills and resources will become increasingly agile in 2016 as more companies and projects rely on a self-compliance program to maintain visibility throughout the project. Ultimately, agility revolves around consistent improvements to processes and feedback on how to perform better. This means you will likely need to become a more prominent figure in instructing your project management team members and ensuring the success of your project.
Increased Emphasis on Mobility
More companies and organizations are beginning to understand the value and emphasis on compliance and visibility in modernity. As a result, the management rules, requirements, and procedures are evolving to reflect greater scrutiny into business processes, which directly reflect your activities as a project manager.
Therefore, your role will evolve to become more visible and accountable in the course of a project in 2016. This allows the overall organization to simply pass along information to authoritative figures, watchdog groups, and government agencies, who have oversight in your project.
PMP® Certified Project Managers
Due to increased scrutiny in project management processes and the policies within a given company, executive-level managers will move towards PMP® certified project managers. Although some project managers without the certification will still exist, the job opportunities will grow scarce, and eventually, companies will not even consider any applicants without this certification for project management roles.
Big Data
Project management has historically focused on physical factors and aspects of ensuring a project stays within budget and time constraints. However, 2015 gave birth to a new era of data analytics processes and improvements in efficiency within the ambit of the PMO as the custodian of these key elements of successful project management. 2016 will see the evolution of these processes into the processing power of many project management suites. As a result, risk management and data analytics will help provide stronger, more accurate forecasts into your project. Furthermore, your project management team will become more efficient and be able to work within tighter constraints.
Some project management trends for 2016 have yet to reveal themselves; however, many of the coming trends will reflect minor changes to trends in 2015. The time has come to start thinking about how you will adapt and meet the expectations of the trends in project management in 2016, especially those concerning training in new software capabilities and PMP® Certification.
Project Managers to be entrepreneurs
Not billing to a customer project is never a good thing regardless of the economy. In today’s climate of mergers and acquisitions, tight budgets and contract work, project managers need to be as entrepreneurial and hungry as a Shark Tank contestant.
Externally facing, the project manager becomes more entrepreneurial the more they participate in the sales cycle. While project managers in professional services organizations may already be part of the sales cycle there’s always room to improve in the joint sales call. This occurs when a company salesperson brings along a project manager to a sales call to answer technical and process related questions for a potential customer.
As internal forces press down on an organization, it’s up to the project manager to always be selling their team and its latest projects to executives. For example, when a company is going through a merger or acquisition, the entrepreneurial project manager is going to want to sell their team as indispensable to the newly combined company. Tactics include being on the right high-profile projects and communicating to decision makers how their team benefits the organization’s bottom line and intellectual property portfolio.
Key Take-Aways:
You will need to become more agile to change 2016 onwards.
Organizational values and beliefs will become more visible in upcoming year.
Smartphone apps will probably replace terminal-based project management systems.
Project managers will be required to have a PMP® certification for most job placement.
Big data will improve efficiency and accuracy in risk management and help other aspects of the project management team by becoming integrating with existing project management software.
Project Managers must be entrepreneurs.
Article Contributor Credits :
Kevin in't Veld, PMP® | CEO Bridgit Africa (Pty) Ltd | Content & Write Up
updated 10 May 2019